Follow Us!

Noted spirituality researcher to conduct talk, study at St. Paul’s

Dr. David J. Hufford, a senior fellow at the Samueli Institute exploring wellness and whole-person healing through science, will share his latest work and research findings on spiritual experiences and their relationship to health at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 23, in the Dixon House library at St. Paul’s Church, 22 E. Chestnut Hill Ave.

The talk is free and open to the public. Those in attendance will be given the opportunity to participate in a large study, looking at the relationship of dramatic spiritual experiences to people’s belief, practice and life orientation.

Hufford has spent his entire career looking into the relationship of spirituality and health in all its different dimensions. As a professor of neural and behavioral science, he saw the tendency to explain away dramatic spiritual experience as a problem of psychopathology. His work has been one of correcting what he has called “this serous misunderstanding.”

In addition to the presentation and a question and answer period, a voluntary questionnaire will be made available for those who wish to participate in Hufford’s study. The questionnaire is anonymous and no identifying information will be gathered.

Persons who would like to participate should indicate this by calling the church office at 215-242-2055 or by emailing ccutler@stpaulschestnuthill.net so that Hufford can have sufficient questionnaires available. More information will be available on the church’s website www.stpaulschestnuthill.org.

Hufford retired from the College of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University in 2007 after 33 years as a professor of neural and behavioral science and family medicine and as chair of Medical Humanities.